‘It’s their right’, says Senator Moore on senators’ walkout

Independent Senator Toni Moore yesterday chided fellow senators for berating those who chose to walk out of the Chamber in the interest of their health and safety.

The trade unionist declared the senators were within their right if they felt they were in “imminent danger”.

The drama unfolded on the final days of the life of the Parliament which now heads for prorogation after its six-year break. Four Opposition and Independent senators walked out before voting on the Integrity in Public Life Bill, which shelved the legislation and triggered a major defeat for the Government.

The senators who walked out were Opposition Senators Caswell Franklyn and Crystal Drakes and Independent Senators Monique Taitt and Lindell Nurse.

The senators’ bone of contention was the fact that Minister of Tourism and International Transport Senator Lisa Cummins was allowed to come into the Chamber after she received a negative test and clearance from the Acting Chief Medical Office Dr Kenneth George.

Senator Cummins, along with Minister of Health Jeffrey Bostic and other officials, were placed in quarantine as a precautionary measure since nine Ghanaian nurses, whom they met at the Grantley Adams International Airport tested positive for COVID-19.

When Senator Cummins took to the floor she was critical of those who had walked out. But, Senator Moore who was at the time speaking on the Employment (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill said that it was unfair to condemn the action.

Senator Moore said: “Even in the context of what we saw here this afternoon I don’t think that it is fair for any of the honourable senators in this Chamber to get on a high horse and behave as if senators who remove themselves from this Chamber, who may perceive themselves as we have in our legislation to be in imminent danger.”

The senator, the head of the Barbados Workers’ Union, said the Employment (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill spoke specifically to such instances.

She said: “I don’t think it is fair for any of us to make suggestions regarding their motives because the very legislation that we are speaking about here this evening that is before this Chamber is a legislation that suggests that where a person makes a complaint or where a person supports another in testifying against a particular kind of behaviour that that person should not be victimised.

“It states that a person should not be harassed; that that person should not be harangued. I just want to suggest to this honourable Chamber that two wrongs, even if we consider something a wrong, don’t make a right.”